Send a message

In the April 7 election, as you are filling out your ballot and wondering why you again have to vote on whether to implement an alcohol tax, consider this:

Five members of our Left-leaning Assembly who decided to put the issue on the ballot – yet again – are running for re-election.

They include: Christopher Constant; Austin Quinn-Davidson; Felix Rivera; Pete Petersen; and, Suzanne LaFrance. Quinn-Davidson and Rivera, in fact, are two of the three sponsors of the question you – again – are being asked to decide.

Only Assembly members John Weddleton and Crystal Kennedy voted against putting the question on the ballot in a 9-2 vote.

Voters went to the polls last year and defeated, by a healthy margin, a similar proposal. That was no surprise. Anchorage voters have said “no” to sales taxes eight different times over the years. They grew so weary of the incessant drives for sales taxes, they amended the charter in 1997 to add the requirement for a 60 percent super-majority for such levies.

In addition to the 5 percent retail alcohol tax, the Assembly also wants you to temporarily set aside that 1997 charter provision to pass the tax – despite the founding document’s Bill of Rights, which provides “immunity from sales taxes, except upon approval by three-fifths (3/5) of the qualified voters voting on the question.”

Enough. Voters have said no again and again. Assemblies grasping for money have ignored them. It is time to tell this one once and for all that an alcohol tax is an unfair levy that targets only one segment of the population. That is wrong.

Also, take a moment to remember Assembly members Constant, Rivera, Petersen and LaFrance were part of the 9-2 majority that rammed their irritating plastic bag ban down the city’s throat. Quinn-Davidson had not yet joined the Assembly for that 2018 vote.

While you are filling our your ballot, you might take the opportunity on April 7 to send a message.